Thompson, McCarthy: No decision yet on Jolly

Mar. 17, 2013

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Written by

Rob Demovsky

Green Bay Packers defensive end Johnny Jolly in a game from December 2008. File/Press-Gazette Media

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PHOENIX — Reinstated defensive end Johnny Jolly still has several hurdles to clear before the Green Bay Packers will make a decision on his future.

The first step is a face-to-face meeting with general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy. The Packers’ top two football men said Sunday that meeting has not yet taken place.

“The first step is for everybody to sit down and talk, that sort of thing,” Thompson said on the eve of the NFL annual meetings at the Arizona Biltmore hotel. “We don’t have any answers. I don’t think anybody has all the answers. But we’re going to talk to the man and find out all the stuff that we can find out in terms of his obligations and that sort of thing.”

Jolly, 30, hasn’t played since the 2009 season but was reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell effective March 4. He was suspended shortly before training camp in 2010 after several arrests in the Houston area for felony possession of codeine. Jolly applied for reinstatement shortly after he was released from prison in May 2012 after serving just six months of a six-year sentence. Goodell waited nearly a year to allow Jolly back into the league in order to see whether Jolly could remain clean.

“Johnny was a good football player for us,” Thompson said. “But let’s take this step by step.”

The Packers begin their offseason program on April 15, the first day the league allows players to return for workouts, so it’s possible McCarthy and Thompson won’t have a better idea about Jolly for another month. Even if they are convinced Jolly can stay clean and will assimilate back into the locker room, perhaps the most important question is, can he still play?

“As with any player, you go through a medical process,” McCarthy said. “We’ll go through all that. I think it’s important to go through all that before we get into how we feel. Johnny, I’ve always considered him one of our guys, and everybody knows what he’s been through. It would be great if this opportunity works out. But as an organization, we have a responsibility to go through the process.”

The Packers must have at least some interest in Jolly because instead of just cutting him after he was reinstated, they reduced his salary from the $2.521 million he was scheduled to make in 2010 (that contract was tolled) to $715,000. He would only collect that if he makes the team.

“I think it’s important to just continue to gather the information,” McCarthy said. “There’s no final decision been made, but I think it’s important for us to meet face to face and go through the medical part of it, which you would do with any player.”